Disclaimer: If I owned anything related to Higher Ground, do you think I would be writing fanfiction? (No, I would be writing the SECOND SEASON!!! )

Author's Note:Sorry about the several month wait between chapters! I was busy with exams, and practicing my clarinet, then I went to camp for a week, and then I went to Denmark for 3 weeks. Anyway, here is chapter 7!




Chapter 7

"Everything's so blurry, and everyone's so fake. And everybody's empty, and everything is so messed up..."

-Puddle of Mudd


David sat in the hospital room for an hour, watching Daisy sleep as she held his hand loosely in hers. The only sounds were the piercing, irritating beeps from the electrocardiograph, and the muffled noise of the activities occurring outside the large, white-walled room. A light knock on the door distracted David from his thoughts. He glanced up for a moment, and then quickly back down at Daisy when he recognized the figure standing in the doorway.

"Mind giving the rest of us a chance?" Shelby's words were not meant to be harsh, but David wasn't in the mood to analyze her tone of voice.

About to give her a mean look, he caught himself just in time. Instead, he looked at her closely for the first time in what seemed like months. She hair hung loosely around her face, and the dark circles under her eyes stood out against her pale complexion. Wet tears gleamed on her cheeks as she stepped into the brightly lit room. The look that had invaded her eyes earlier was back, and in full force. David cringed at the pain he felt he had caused. The teenage boy stood slowly, giving in to the guilt gnawing at his heart. Shelby's request was only fair.

"Sure." he muttered, daring to squeeze Shelby's shoulder as he walked by, leaving the room.

As he took his seat in the ER waiting room, Anne handed him a cup of coffee. He stared at the dark liquid for a moment, then up at the Cliffhangers, who were staring at him with obvious envy. It was then that he began to understand their anger. Slowly he handed the paper cup back to his stepmother and moved to the seat next to Ezra.

"She's going to be ok," he said, as if the practically meaningless words would reassure his former group mate. David felt a sick feeling invade his stomach as he realized what he was becoming. He was turning into the kind of person he hated, his own worst enemy. The type of person that the 'lost souls' at Horizon hated. They were hated not only because they were lying, but because they would never understand. Their words were spoken to reassure themselves, not those in need of comfort and safety. And certainly not those forgotten by the rest of the world, thrown away because they were hurting, some abandoned by those who were supposed to love them. Ezra regarded David with a look that would have been cold enough to freeze hell, but David's eyes were glued to the floor.

"Maybe if you looked at me I'd be able to believe you." Ezra shot back coldly. At that moment, he had no patience for the easy way out. He wanted evidence, details, and proof...But most of all, he wanted the truth.

David cringed at the truth in Ezra's comment, and silence swallowed his cold words as David gave up. There had been a time, not long ago, when he had promised himself he would never give up. But that had been different. He had been dealing with someone who didn't understand; someone who hadn't been worth the effort. His own father. Sometimes it was still hard for David to believe how isolated he was from his father. As a young boy he had tried so hard to meet the General's standards, to be the perfect child, or more accurately, the obedient soldier. But somewhere along the line, something had gone sour. Until that moment, there had been nothing David had wanted less than to become what his father wanted and expected...Now all he wanted was to have his real family back. The few people in the world who had accepted him were now turning away from him, just as the rest of the universe had done before them.

Unable to deal with the uncomfortable situation any longer, David stood and walked away, hoping to leave his problems behind. As he wandered through the seemingly endless maze of hallways, his stomach grumbled, making him aware of his body's need for food. Ten minutes later, having had no luck, the dark haired boy settled for a chocolate bar from the nearby vending machine. Finding a fairly secluded chair, or as secluded as it could be in a hospital full of doctors, patients, and visitors, David sat down to enjoy his breakfast. Taking a bite of the sweet chocolate, he leaned his against the wall behind him and focused on the ceiling. The pain, anger and loneliness slowly seeped back into David's blood as he slipped into another world...

***
...He had been seven years old; too innocent to break the rules, yet too old to fall for his father's lies. He had waited in the cold hospital chair for hours, lost and alone in a maze of hallways and strangers. How he had found the secluded corner, he wasn't sure. It had started with a fight in the kitchen, and had ended with his mother in a hospital bed, having lost yet another battle with the monster who was David's father. Unable to stand the General's false comfort and afraid to let him get close, David had ran down the hall as fast as his small legs could carry him. His heart had pounded as he whipped around corners and ducked away from doctors. The child had soon found himself in a rather empty part of the large building, much like the one he was in now. And then it had happened.
"I've been looking for you everywhere! What do you think you're doing, running away like that?" Robert Ruxton's voice had boomed through the hallways, echoing in the silence.
David had just stared, paralyzed by fear, numbed by anger.
"Answer me, god damn it!" Robert had stepped closer to the child, reaching out towards him. The General shook his son violently, yelling as he did so.
"David! David aswer me!"
***

It took David several long seconds to realize that the yelling was not only in his mind, but in the real world as well.

"David! David, are you in there?" Anne called softly, breaking him out of his nightmare. Weren't nightmares only supposed to occur at night?

"What?" David asked, not meaning to be rude.

"It's time to go."

Swallowing hard, David pushed the memory back into his subconscious mind. Standing, he followed his stepmother back through the maze, in search of Daisy's room for a chance to say goodbye. What had happened to the world? There had been a time when his father's threats and beatings had not phased him. A time when he wasn't visiting his girlfriend in the hospital, receiving looks of anger, betrayal and sadness from the people he felt were his real family. A time when his life had been different, when the world had seemed so much smaller. But most of all, a time when he had been blind to the pain and heartache that had cornered into an unescapable world of fear.

As he made his way down the crowded hallway, a single thought ran continuously through David's mind: Times change.



***



Thanks for reading :) , and sorry this is so short!